After this I have only one contribution left, so now’s your chance.

Today’s reader is Scott Moody, animal lover. Here’s his intro and a few photos:

Emeritus Professor, 40 years at Ohio University, teaching human anatomy at the medical school, and herpetology, mammalogy, forensic biology, intro bio (ecology, behavior and evolution), and history of biology.  Working on my 20 acre farm and woodlands, restoring native vegetation, improving the soil, removing invasive species, and working with my Belgian Draft Horses (photo with Mollie).  During the May-October season I am a wildlife zoologist monitoring for the endangered species Timber Rattlesnake along construction of highways, natural gas lines and electric transmission lines in southern Ohio.   I rescue other wildlife as well: photos are of me with a 7 foot long Midland Black Ratsnake and the first Sandhill Crane documented for Athens County;   She was missing a foot (all healed) but apparently ran out of gas flying from Florida to Michigan.

Send in your photos (remember, a maximum of two, with caption). Today’s reader is Ned Rosen, and his words are indented. He also sent a musical video.

I’m a retired math professor living in the suburbs of Boston, avid reader of WEIT but sporadic commenter (mostly about music). One nice thing about my location is that the three grocery stores we use are each about 1.2 miles from the house, so my particular pandemic activity, needing exercise with the gym closed, is to walk with our new rolling cart to buy groceries. We take a small insulated bag with ice packs for frozen goods and fresh fish and meat.

And. . . a Beatles song.

My piano version of She’s a Woman, at a friend’s house in Florida in early February when traveling was still part of life.

Today’s entry is from reader Sonja, who included a cat photo. Her captions are indented:

My husband and I are long-time readers of Why Evolution Is True, so I thought I’d send you these photos of us from more carefree times in 2012, on a camping trip to Crater Lake (OR) and Redwood National Park.

Sonja at Crater Lake, August 12, 2012: We were visiting to watch the peak of the Perseid meteor showers. My husband took this photo of me standing on the rim of the caldera.

Hamilton and Sonja at Redwood National Park (Humboldt county, CA), August 15, 2012. If we look scruffy, it’s because it was our 5th day camping on the hard ground. The trees were awe-inspiring and beautiful, so tall we couldn’t capture them in photos in a way that conveys their true size.

This is Mizzy. She is 14 and has always had a cold little black heart, but she adores my 5 year old son. He’s the one who put the toy butterfly on her, to make her look like a beautiful, if chubby and grumpy, butterfly. I love the white spot on the right side of her face and the corresponding black spot on her front right paw, as if ink dripped off her face and onto her paw during development.

We’re down to three entries again (two after this post), so by all means favor us with your visage.  Today’s reader is David Frayer, complete with mushroom largesse. His words are indented.

After retiring from the University of Kansas five years ago, I spend most of my days at home on my urban farm, but at times I miss my time in the classroom and advising students. In the winter I always go for a month or more to Italy and Croatia, but who knows about the future of that? During the lockdown, I do a lot of gardening, and then, when it gets too hot, try to read and do research, writing on Neandertals. As you see, chanterelle collecting is also a hobby, and they are extra plentiful this year.

Below are our two cats, Bob, the tuxedo cat, and J.C.—not Jerry Coyne but Jesus Christ because he is identical to our previous Russian Blue. I do not believe in resurrection, except for cats. He goes only by “J.C.”. They are good companions, day and night. 

One in the tank after this one, and then it’s dry. Do send in your photos, lockdown or otherwise (maximum 2, though I’ve been known to put up 3, like today), along with a caption.  Today’s reader is Alicia Fraile from Spain. She sent a fossil photo, though it looks carved rather than preserved. Alicia’s captions are indented.

I live in Madrid, Spain, and I work both as a psychiatrist (outpatients; main job) and translator (English to Spanish) of medical texts. The lockdown meant working from home, with innumerable phone calls, going out very very little for months.

Attached is a selfie trying on my latest facemask (and hair in disarray, lockdown’s style), compulsory everywhere. This is a strange summer we are living, and let’s see what Fall brings us.

As it took me many weeks to be able to read a book while in lockdown, I crocheted amigurumis, most of which I gave away to friends and familiy; this is one of the latest, but pretty cute, right?

The ‘reader’s wildlife photo’ with a question and question mark is a fossil that a patient gave me as a present about twenty years ago. He got it in the mountains south of Madrid (Montes de Toledo), I think. That’s all I know about it and I would love to have a name, perhaps you or the readers would be so kind to provide one? It is the only ornament on my table and has survived a few house moves.

JAC: I wrote Alicia that the fossil looks suspiciously handmade, but readers can weigh in below.

Send ’em in, people! After this one I have only one left, and it would be sad to lose this feature.

Today’s reader is Christopher, whose words are indented.

In response to your photo request, I offer one of myself doing one of the few things that helps keep me sane (well, relatively so) during the lockdown: wandering around my 1.5 acres and observing the flora and fauna found there. This was a rare “selfie” of me with the first box turtle of the year. This is my favorite rite of spring. There are several ornate and three-toed box turtles that live on or around my property which is bounded on one side by a small creek and on another by a cow pasture. I also enjoy the company of at least four snake species, five amphibians, 30-odd bird species, foxes, rabbits, opossums, raccoons, feral cats, and untold numbers of invertebrates.  Indoors, I share a shack with a large orange cat, a Russian tortoise, two African water turtles, and some fish but it’s the unkempt wild acreage that keeps me just this side of sanity. I count myself as lucky when compared to you urban apartment dwellers with little or no outdoor access.

For my second photo, one of my amphibious neighbors whom I find every day in between my back door and screen door, a gray tree frog, Dryophytes (formerly Hyla) versicolor. You may have Ceiling Cat but I have a lesser-known god, Door Frog. Here he is perched upon his throne, last year’s mud dauber nest. Yesterday he was surrounded by three other amphibian apostles. Praise be to Hyla.